Media Harder On President This Time

At his press conference last night, President Barack Obama took questions from Ebony magazine, Stars and Stripes, Univision, Agence France-Presse, Politico and the Washington Times. Not picked were the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal or USA Today. The result was a nearly hour-long session focused almost entirely on domestic policy. President Obama made clear during the transition that he did not plan to follow the usual journalistic pecking order. As president, he has broken with precedent by having his press office notify correspondents that they will be called on at upcoming news conferences. The more unorthodox approach was highlighted at his first evening session, when he took a question from a correspondent for the Huffington Post. Obama's selection process last night did not result in softball inquiries.